Just because Canada’s contribution to the French-led intervention in Mali has been paltry does not mean Canada needs to do more. The French, British and African allies appear to be handling things splendidly.

Three months ago, U2 frontman Bono made a surprise appearance at a popular music festival in the dunes outside Timbuktu. Today, the tourists are long gone and ominous black flags planted by jihadists flap in the city whose heyday as an ancient trading hub and intellectual centre has suddenly been supplanted with a new identity as the centre of a chaotic rebellion